Monday, May 2, 2011

I don't know where else to express my feelings, and I don't know really what it is that I want to express, so I am just going to spend the next ten minutes writing down whatever comes to my head while there are tears that swell up in my eyes. At 9:30pm tonight, my roommate Geoff showed me the frontpage of MSN.com, and that there was an update that President Obama wanted to speak to the country but the details of why were unknown. We had no idea at the time what that news would be. Was Obama stepping down? Were we going to war for a fourth time? Was there a terrorist attack in the works? Anyone of those things could have been true, because already that news of a press conference was something that seemed way out of the ordinary.

Two hours past that time, I am still awake, as are the roommates, on a night where we were hoping to sleep long ago. I have tears in my eyes, and I am watching coverage of what an only be described as a party on the White House lawn. I am watching coverage of people celebrating, randomly singing "God Bless America" and chanting USA! USA! at Ground Zero. I am hearing news on Twitter of celebrations occurring on airplanes as people learned the news on their in-flight televisions. All of this, and more, because of the death of Osama bin Laden.

The death of anyone isn't something that is typically celebrated, but there are 3,000 innocent American citizens that died because of this bastard, and countless others that have lost their lives trying to defend America from the new world of terror that he has introduced into our society. But to see people celebrating on the same soil where two gigantic towers fell ten years ago is awe-inspiring.

Make no mistake about it, this is a euphoric moment. The news of the death of Osama bin Laden is something we have been desperate to hear for a long time. And the fact that it actually took ten long years to achieve this goal is something that is only intensifying how big this moment really is. It shows that American did it. We accomplished something. The most evil person in the world is dead at the hands of American soldiers, soldiers that will be unnamed forever but are some of the biggest heroes this country will ever have. Anyone that suits up and heads overseas in an effort to protect our civil liberties is a hero, and everyone involved in this cause should be happy tonight.

Sadly, this joy may draw ire from those that sympathize with the motives of bin Laden. There may be attempts at retaliation, and American citizens both domestically and internationally should be on high alert. The War on Terror is not over, and I think everyone understands that. But the fact Osama bin Laden is actually finally dead is truly a historic moment that deserves this kind of national celebration. There has been a lot of shit that has gone on since 2001, and the division between Americans on the left and the right seems to get wider everyday. But the fact that for this moment, right now, this whole country is unified is why the tears are in my eyes right now. It doesn't matter the race, the idealisms, the gender, the age, this is an event that is bringing the nation together in a way that it hasn't been brought together since those terrible attacks on 9/11. Only this time, we are unified in joy. We are unified in hope. We are unified in a sense of accomplishment. Tomorrow, the world will go back to normal. We will get back to the same old political rhetoric, and life will go back tomorrow. But right now, this very moment that I write this, the entire country is unified. At this point, we truly are the UNITED States of America. Granted, it came from terrible circumstances, but we are a country right now, a unified country. This truly was a historic night, and we should all go to bed sound asleep knowing that for this moment, America is stronger than ever.

Thank you troops, thank you everyone that has ever sacrificed anything to make this happen, thank you anyone that has ever sacrificed anything to protect me and my family day in and day out. America is a wonderful place, and I'm glad at this moment we all realize that.

God Bless America, tonight more than any other. What an historic night.